idontlivethereanymore

New Blog

2008-07-01T12:00:00.005-04:00

Moving On

2008-06-26T21:00:00.003-04:00

I have graduated and moved all of my things to NYC so the bad news is that this is the end of the idontlivethereanymore blog.

The good news is that there will be plenty more entries to come in my new blog.

3blocksfromj.blogspot.com

CLICK

Thank you for reading!

I hope you will continue to read my words and come to the new blog more often.

Updates will be shorter and more frequent.

Enjoy.

-Ryan

family

2008-06-26T14:19:00.003-04:00

This past weekend Bethany's parents and friends visited TF. We took a trip to NY too! Here are some photos.

bridge of flowers

me with the fam

Levi

Jackie and Bethany

Mr H

Walker

Moving In

2008-06-26T00:42:00.003-04:00

So here we are in the apartment in Brooklyn.

Its been a tiring day.

Moving

Unpacking

Sam

Moving Out

2008-06-24T16:03:00.002-04:00

Im sitting in the Turners Falls Laundromat right now utilizing their free internet that never worked until now. I took a few walks around town today doing errands (since my dad took my car home after graduation) and saw a lot of places for the last time. I went to cup-o-joe for some ice tea with my future roomates to discuss our big move. The drinks there were never that great. I wanted it to be this awesome coffee place where I would always be found and long for once I moved away. Honestly its not awesome. Too bad. I cleaned up the remainder of my stuff and packed the final boxes. My computer, clothes, books, and other belongings are all in boxes ready to be loaded onto a truck. I am using my washing machine and the driers down the street to wash the last of my clothes.

I am happy to get out of Turners Falls and move on with my life but there are some things that I will miss.

Subway, China Gourmet, TF Pizza, Rendezvous, and Laundromat right down the street.

Shopping carts everywhere

Unity Park

The couple who works at the salon

Hallmark

Staff

My apartment and how huge it is

My friends and girlfriend all living within a 10 minute walk

So tomorrow is the big moving day. Sam, Matt, Karinna, and myself will get the truck first thing in the morning, pack the stuff in it, drive to NY and unload.

We are going to spend the night in the new place and get things settled. Thursday Sam and I are driving back to get ready for Mary's wedding in Maine. Bethany and Ashley are moving to Hoboken NJ on the first so I'm going to help them move down and that will be it. I will be a New York resident.

I'm starting a new blog and I will let you know when I'm ready to solidify this as a memory and launch the new one.

-Ryan

Asylum

2008-06-18T21:51:00.002-04:00

This week has been a different kind of busy.

Instead of photographing, editing, and printing I have been looking for jobs, grabbing internet where I can get it, cleaning, packing, and getting ready to move to NY.

This morning Becky and I got up early and went to photograph a local insane asylum. Armed with tripods, cameras, and flashlights we ventured into the abandoned state school. It was creepy and a little strange to think of all the deranged stuff that went down in those deserted halls. Paint chipped off the walls. Graffiti and empty beer cans proved that there had been plenty of previous entries.

I have posted some photos but they are not finished.

When I have settled down in NYC and have some spare time, Ill be working on these and improving them with minor photoshop adjustments.

You can read a story Becky wrote about the trip here...

•••••••••••••••••

Hallway

Reflection in the water

Exterior

Nurses station

Becky

split personalities?

(bad taste?)

Bathtub

Reflections

Hallway

Door

Stairs

Sinks

Bathroom

Destruction

•••••••••••••••••

This blog will be ending soon along with my schooling. The purpose was to outline my time here at Hallmark and since it is coming to a close, so will this blog.

I have created a brand new blog that I will update about life in NYC. The idontlivethereanymore blog will serve as a chapter in my life and my Hallmark education.

Stay tuned for the final installments of this blog and to hear updates and eventually a link to my new literary and photographic endeavors in NYC.

NYC

2008-06-10T19:14:00.003-04:00

Hey!

Today was my review for the final portfolio. Anticipation and nervousness were heavy when the curtain opened and my photos were displayed. Three professional photographers, David Turner, Barbara Bordnik, and Beth Reynolds reviewed my work one piece at a time and gave it very high ratings.

I even dressed all snazzy for the occasion!

Excitement and stress are abundant as Im getting ready for a new move in my life. Ill be moving to a new apartment in Brooklyn, NY on July first. We visited it this weekend to check things out and see the area.

NY skyline from Hoboken NJ where Bethany and Ashley are moving. Amazing view of all of Manhattan.

Driving in NY through Chinatown.

Front Step of the new place.

A bedroom in the new place.

The top floor is the third floor where our place is. There is roof access and the place is beautiful with a nice view.

Bethany and i in Central Park.

Ashley, Sam, Me in Central Park.

Guy with a Parrot in Central Park.

It was a really cool trip and I cant wait to live in such an awesome city.

Rochester Meets Boston

2008-06-04T18:46:00.003-04:00

This past weekend some Rochester friends came over for a visit in Turners Falls. Ben, Mark, Steve, Alicia, Susie, and I hung out in town and even went to Boston for a day!

This is a group photo from friday night. We took a walk around Turners and took some photos.

Ben and his new laptop.

Mark, Alicia, and Ben on the merry go round. We were experimenting with flash and stop motion.

Steve and Ben in boston outside of Fenway park.

We went on a quest to find tea in Boston so we could have a "boston tea party."

In the Red Sox store. Everything cost a fortune.

Totally tourists.

We all had a ton of fun and it was good to see everyone again. If you want to see more photos you can find the whole gallery HERE.

JPG

2008-05-27T13:50:00.002-04:00

TTV

2008-05-26T15:43:00.002-04:00

This is a new project that I am working on now that I have some time. Its called Through the Viewfinder Photography.

Through the Viewfinder photography is defined as taking a picture of any subject through the viewfinder of any camera with another camera. I used my roomates TLR camera with a long shade over the viewfinder. I took the photo with my Digital Canon camera.

These are just a few examples of shots I did. To see more, check out the gallery page. Click Here.

My Final Portfolio

2008-05-25T13:52:00.004-04:00

Now that portfolio is over I am taking a lot of interesting photographs in my spare time. I have been experimenting with some TTV photogography and plan on keeping busy with personal work. I dont know what is in store for idontlivethereanymore blog in the future but I will keep updating while Im still in school.

Hope you like my portfolio! I worked really hard on it. Stay tuned for more updates!

My Interior

2008-05-21T15:08:00.003-04:00

I shot "the egg" in Albany, NY a couple of weeks ago for an exterior architecture assignment. This is one shot with no HDR or Photoshopping besides color enhancement and curves. I waited on the top ledge of a 5 story parking garage for about an hour for the sun to be just below horizon line. I got this shot and Im really happy with it.

The following shots are from Smith College in Northampton, MA. Its really the only really cool modern building within an hour of here.

The following images have HDR applied to them. This is where I take six or so different exposures of the same thing on a tripod and use photoshop to merge them all together to get the best dynamic range to the image.

I really like how they turned out. I used this first one in my final portfolio and the other ones are extras. Because so many people photograph the main lobby I opted to use the red room to be a little different.

Red Room

Lobby

This is my favorite one.

Cafe.

Lobby.

I like this view on it too.

So today is the big day. Portfolios are due at 5 this afternoon. Thats only an hour and a half! Kind of nerve wracking knowing that everything I have worked for this year could be jeopardized if I somehow dont show up to the auditorium at 5. If only one thing is misplaced or excluded from the portfolio box you dont get graded and fail out. Yikes.

Ok. More updates later!

My Last Couple

2008-05-21T00:44:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I posted a blog about this couples shot that I did.

Unfortunately I was told that I couldnt use this as a couples photo because it is two merged photos. With only one day left to shoot I rounded up a couple more people and reshot. I wanted to have a real Richard Avedon/ Irving Penn feel with this photo. Something very plain with expressions to carry the picture. I think it is done just fine and, although skeptical going into the shoot, am very pleased with the results.

I shot this with a white background lit by two umbrellas and one Fresnell light illuminating the faces. Softbox fill.
Again, this is a totally different type of portrait than I am used to. I like how his shirt is wrinkled and untucked and he looks like he is totally oblivious and doesnt care. A new twist on a couples portrait and a homage to two of my favorite photographers.

I shot these towels earlier and posted some variations. This is the one I chose. In NO way is this shot justice to the print. The 11x11 print is huge and sharp and so bright. Truly better than the screen can display.

This is Zypher. I photographed him in the studio for my digitally altered photo. I took a photo outside my apartment in the side alley to strip him into.

This is the finished shot.

Studio: Shot with umbrella strobes on the background and one gridspot with a warming gel (to give skin a "sunlight" look.)

Photoshop: Composite child into background, sizing, warping for perspective, adjustment masking for color and tonality, burning and dodging each layer. Gausian blur applied to image and masked out on kid and surrounding depth of field. Sharpening applied to entire photo.

This is a food still life photographed in the commercial studio. I liked the idea of a picnic and searched to find a table cloth exactly like this. You would think they would be easy to find...

Shot with one gridspot over the food. Dodging applied in Photoshop.

On a side note, my brother steven got another year older today. Happy birthday buddy! Hope it was amazing.

More later!

Couple and Child

2008-05-19T19:29:00.005-04:00

Hey!

I have been pretty busy but the time I wasn't blogging was well spent shooting and editing all of my final shots.

Instead of doing one huge entry to show all my work I am going to break it down in sets so I spend more time writing about each shot. In the end I will put my portfolio up as a whole and write about how it fits together.

This is Bianca. I photographed her in Phase three for "Child in Studio."

I really wanted to use her again for phase 4. I had the concept for the cake and yellow background in my head for a long time and she is the only one I could visualize in the picture. She is really great to work with and we have a lot of fun. I wanted something with a lot of light, bright colors, and festivity. I hatched the idea for the cake because I wanted the kid stoked about something and what else would make a kid that happy except for a huge sheet cake all to themselves? White plastic silverware and blue checked table cloth to add to the summer feel and create a feeling of more freedom and fun. Im glad we got the expression that appears. So great. Also, big thanks to Bianca's mom for coming out on mothers day to shoot with me.

Shot with two softboxes, one on either side, one beauty dish above the cake, one 1x4 strip light directly in front of her, and a gridspot with a telescoping snoot as a hair light. Background stripped in with Photoshop.

Phase 3 child

This is the brand new "Ad Design" assignment.

I wanted to do something with a lot more color and excitement since Phase 3's was rather dull colors. I shot these on glass with a white background (SEE HERE) with one strobe behind a white scrim and a softbox above. Glasses "sweated" with glycerin and dulling spray to make them look crisp and chilled. I lightened the labels significantly to display brighter. Background stripped in with photoshop. Multiple burning and dodging layers and over ten masking layers to get the pinwheel pattern to show through the tops of the bottles. Its hard to make a solid look transparent!

Phase 3 ad

In phase 4 we have a mandatory couples portrait. This was not included in phase 3 and was kind of a new thing to shoot seeing as I don't shoot couples very often. I photographed Teddy (girl) for a High Key assignment a while ago and have been waiting for the right assignment to call her again. Fortunately for me, she has a boyfriend so I had her bring him in to do this. I really wanted to do something different. I have solid colors, whites, and bright images in my portfolio and wanted something to match rather than a typical studio or outdoor portrait. I wanted this to look like something from a 90's sitcom where two people talk on the phone and the display goes split screen. I have another version without the black stripe and Im not sure which to use yet.

This is shot with two softboxes, one on either side, a 1x4 strip light overhead to light up the hair and back, beauty dish in the front next to camera, and another 1x4 softbox to light the background. Minor retouching and merging of images done in Photoshop.

I think I am going to print more tonight and possibly be totally done with all my photos!

Keep checking back for more updates now that I have more time!

-Ryan

Beauty

2008-05-06T21:35:00.002-04:00

Hey, this is going to be a quick entry. I am pretty busy this week and the next two weeks preceding the portfolio review.

I just wanted to show you some cool photos I have been working on.

High end perfume photographed with one tungsten hot light placed behind a scrim with black cards and white cards and mirrors placed behind and around the bottle to get light reflections in all the right spots.

One Tungsten light from behind photographed at f5.6 with a 1 second exposure
Composited with another shot of the same subject lit without black cards to get the color of the perfume at f32 with a 1/20th second exposure.

I shot this a while ago but here is the finished product.

I put water bottles around the sides of it to get that ribbed reflection in the metal. Pretty innovative. Black card on the sweep table to get black reflection on the middle.

One softbox overhead. Compositing, dodging & burning, and painting done in photoshop.

Let me know what you think.

Ryan

My Catch Up

2008-05-02T23:29:00.003-04:00

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have some new shots to display. Some of which I am currently working on, some that are done, and some I just forgot to show at an earlier entry.

If you are having trouble viewing my blog due to slow loading photos and issues displaying the page, I am working on that and hopefully the problem will be fixed soon. Sorry! I switched to a new image hosting service and it takes some tweaking and getting used to. If you use Mozilla Firefox or Safari (for PC and Mac) it should work fine but I am working on getting this correct in all browsers

Here goes...

Steven in the park for "outdoor portrait." I wanted a baseball theme for the sake of not doing just a plain portrait. Im sick of traditional "smiling at the camera, ok say cheese" photos.

photographed with canon xti in open shade with white reflector on the left.

[I think I like this one the best]

Ok, so I bought these towels a while ago and meant to shoot them but I didnt have any ideas and I forgot that they were in the back of my trunk. I recently found them and shot them for a "color still life" or a personal submission to my portfolio. It was fun like a creativity exercise we used to do in the beginning of the year. I got focus on the towels and was able to experiment with different backgrounds and patterns. Check out the stacking of the towels. For photographic jobs shooting this stuff they have trained stylists working hard to get everything perfect. Loading them up with cardboard and pins to get them folded just perfectly. I did some of my own styling with tape, clamps, and cardboard. Here are three of my favorites.

photographed with large format camera on tabletop

one softbox overhead lighting the top, sides, and background along with one equally powered gridspot illuminating the front to get texture. background suspended with clamps and C-stand. sharpening added in photoshop.

same as above with additional towel suspended by clamps in the background.

same as above with no hanging background. yellow paper swept under the towels.

Here is a shot I did for Izze carbonated beverages. I am turning this into an advertisement and adding a sunburst pattern in the background with letterhead on the top and text on the bottom. I have done nothing to retouch the background because the bottles will be cut out and pasted on my ad design layout.

photographed with large format camera on tabletop with one softbox behind to blow out the background and one softbox overhead to illuminate the tops and sides of the bottles. one silver reflector under the setup to reflect strobe back up onto the labels. (you can see the silver card at the bottom of the photo but its ok because im cutting it out.)

dodging and burning done in photoshop.

The cups below were an attempt to pay tribute to a NYC based photographer David Arky. Check out his "liquids" section and scroll to the very end. All of his work is really cool and the photo of the simple plastic cup caught my eye so I wanted to pay tribute to it with my own rendition. I was doing this for fun because I didnt think it would be visually appealing enough to end up in my portfolio but I really like it and it goes along with my commercial style wonderfully so I may end up including one of the shots.

photographed with a large format camera on blue paper suspended above the tabletop. Gridspot illuminates the background making a fanned out lighting pattern. One gridspot flashed right above the water facing straight into it to illuminate the cup. I filled the cup with water to give it a solid look.

No retouching done yet in photoshop but I do plan on cleaning up the dust spots, dodging and burning the corners a bit, and adding a bit of noise.

Shot on a glass pane against a blown out rear lit softbox background with the same grid spot from above illuminating the glass. water spilled on the table to give more aesthetically interesting look.

Thats all for now as far as pictures go but I thought I could update you with some fast news information.

Adobe Photoshop has released a free online version of their photoshop software. its easy to use and allows you 2 gigs of free photo storage along with the basics of their editing software. Check it out at https://www.photoshop.com/express/landing.html
I purchased the Format's newer CD "Dog Problems" from iTunes and it was one of the smarter musical purchases I have made. Check it out.
I currently have the most obnoxious yellow background on my computer and I think its hilarious. Becky thinks its horrible.
I hung up clothesline across my living room and have clothespinned prints, polaroid, and proof sheets on it. It looks pretty cool and Its a pretty cool idea if I say so myself.
I am photographing a family this weekend.
My work is looking good and I have a lot done. Will I be done a week before its all due? probably not. But I wont be freaking out so this is good.
Anberlin, Jonezetta, and Showbread are coming out with new albums.
Bethany is out of town for the weekend :(
Got a new iPod for free because my old one broke. It pays to have applecare my friends. Invest in the replacement plan.
I have some fun commercial studio plans for this weekend. A picnic scene and a high end perfume bottle. Should be interesting! I have all of tomorrow to experiment.

Ok! Im off to bed because I am tired.

More later. Let me know what you like!

-Ryan

My Family

2008-05-01T22:12:00.003-04:00

Hello!

This past weekend my family visited lovely Turners Falls for the hallmark class open house.

-Walks around town
-Lunch at the Shady (shady) Glen
-Photo shoot with Steven in the baseball fields
-Wandering around Faces to look at random novelty merchandise
-Dinner at Fitzwillys with Bethany and Becky in our company
-Watching Monty Python back at the house till late hours
-Breakfast and facebook video early in the morning.
-Open house at school and departure.

It went way to fast but it was good to see everyone again. Here are some photos.

Steven at third.

Dave at Poets Seat

View in the spring of Poets Seat

Mom and Dad

The Brothers

Boys skipping rocks

New Stuff

2008-04-23T23:42:00.003-04:00

Final CK shot. I sharpened the edges and darkened the shadows.

Pepsi shot on gear with red paper background.

One grid spot on background and two softboxes to either side of the can.

I did this shot tonight and I tried about 10 different things before I got this. I will have to work with it a bit in photoshop to make it look the way I want it to but this is what I JUST got out of camera.

A triptych of maria during a PR alternative shot this past weekend. I am using the first one (As you will see below) but I like seeing the three of them right next to each other.

One soft box on either side at a 45 degree angle, one grid spot on background, and a 1x4 strip light for the hair light.

High Key shot of Jess in studio. White everything with some subtle design elements added to the background in photoshop. I used two umbrellas to flood the background and two softboxes, one above shining down and one below shining up, to beauty light her. Beauty dish spotlight above her head shining down on front of hair and face to give a butterfly lighting feel. 1x4 strip light hair light.

Same lighting as above but with exposed tattoo.

Maria in a PR headshot pose.

I shot this in the studio over the weekend with the other portraits. Same as phase 3's assignment, I needed a dressed up PR portrait and an alternative that shows more of the persons personal side.

Maria's alternate pose.

I lit this with one softbox on either side, black background with grid spot on it to get glare on earrings and glasses, and a strip light hair light.

A shot of brian. I am currently photoshopping this. It is the low Key male like in phase 3 so the final shot will be in black and white. I am going to add more sharpening as well to give it more of an impact.

Well this is what I have been up to. I have some things to return, some things to buy, and hopefully an outdoor portrait to shoot this weekend with my brother. My whole family is coming up on Saturday and Sunday to visit for student open house.

This week we looked at our photos and determined a personal style for ourselves. I am actually working on a new website to reflect this style better than my current one. Its a work in progress but it will be coming soon.

Let me know what you think.

-Ryan

My Calvin Klein

2008-04-18T11:34:00.003-04:00

Shot with one softbox about 5 feet behind and one softboxe in the foreground on either side. Two front softboxes are between camera and bottle to feather light. Composition of two splashes. Splashed with a bowl of water from behind the glass in front of the softbox.

Fish and fish shot on plain blue paper with one softbox above and one softbox to the left next to the camera.

Sunglasses shot on an infinity table.

Road to Rhode Island

2008-04-15T11:25:00.005-04:00

This weekend Ashley, Bethany, Mary, and I went to Rhode Island to take some photos. We met up with my friend Stephanie and explored Providence.

Ashley and Mary after a long car ride.

Stephanie on a brick wall.

Bethany and Ashley.

Ashley.

Mary and a wall.

Ashley at RISD with flash.

Burnside statue

We were trying to get interior shots at hotels in town. There were so many great buildings that wouldn't let us photograph in them. Ill leave it at "sometimes its easier to apologize than ask permission."

Bethany in the hotel.

Staircase in the lobby.

Superman.

Stephanie on the bridge.

New York and Boston.

Mariot Building.

This guy was playing the Star Wars Theme. I asked permission to photograph him so he hammed it up for the camera. I gave him some change in his case. The guy in the background looks either conspiring or constipated.

Bethany on the beach.

The Peck family visited this weekend because Andrew was visiting the school. It was awesome to be able to see them again. We went out for dinner and talked to catch up a lot. These are some photos we took during their tour of the open house.

Todd in the wig.

Me.

Matt.

These are the women of one of my instructors family. They were here seeing his exhibit and stopped in the portrait studio to pose for a picture.

Ok thanks for looking, I am working on some nice new commercial studio stuff that should look really cool. Stay tuned!

My Pancake Breakfast

2008-04-09T09:29:00.003-04:00

I have been eating pancakes for breakfast a lot recently.

I took this shot.

Breakfast photographed with window, cloth curtain, piece of barn wall backdrop and kitchen table top on saw horses and appleboxes.

Lit with two barn door movie lights: one in the window to create shadow on the backdrop, one shining through an unseen window to create shadows on the breakfast. One softbox overhead.

Three exposures as the syrup dripped. This was 2 of three and had the best drips.

Dodging and burning on breakfast.

New glass

Shot with one softbox strobe behind the metal grate. Powerade in the glasses. Glasses suspended with clamps.

Which one do you like?

These are glasses I shot last night. Im not sure if I like the shot. I was picturing something different that I couldnt get and I settled for this. Its a pretty cool shot but I was hoping for something more. This is not the final image, I am going to be changing a couple things and doing some post production. If I decide its good enough to include in my portfolio and the editing goes well you will see more of this.

Let me know what you think! Your feedback is very helpful.

Some New Photos

2008-04-03T16:20:00.000-04:00

Whisk

Four Different "alike items"

Icy glass

My April

2008-04-02T14:32:00.002-04:00

Hi.

Since my rant about the changing temperatures it has been about 60 and sunny consistently. So nice.

Last night I shot glassware again and it kicks butt. I cant wait to show you how they look. Its harder for me to post images since my work computer cant travel around with me and I dont have internet at home. I promise Ill get some posted soon though. I had a cool grid background and used mini martini glasses with liquid in them. I am just excited about it. Tonight I am going to try to shoot an environmental still life using bread and oil and butter. Maybe some spices or something? Basically the goal of this is to make it look like I DIDNT shoot it in the studio. Like the bathroom counter shoot from Phase 3 or the mysterious window shoot from Phase 2.

Also I need models so if you want to drive to TF to visit me....you know.

But I came up with an AMAZING idea for the occupational portrait. It involves a police car, police officer and a lot of strange lights. I hope I can gather these things because it would be pretty sweet.

Ok. Ill gather some images to post soon. Promise.

-Ryan

My life in Turners Falls

2008-03-31T20:02:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone,

The weather here has been completely bi-polar and its quite confusing. Outerwear is a jumbled choice of only t-shirts, hoodies, light jackets, and fur parkas. One day is a beautiful sunny day at 60 degrees and that night will be 15 and pouring. Yesterday we played and took pictures outside. Three hours later we took a walk wearing hoodies expecting the same thermal treatment and wound up in Unity Park freezing our fingers off. Today was dark and rainy.

School is picking up pace. Starting to worry about finding models and finding things to shoot and weather or not they look good. Im going between the blue house and school to bootleg internet to update this and check email but all is well. For the last few days the town stoplight has been out and its been complete chaos. I feel like Phase 4 is more controlled because of our experience in phase three. I seem to be doing the same amount of work as Phase 3 but it seems more spaced out and familiar.

Earlier this week I shot glass in the studio. A real classy type. Im not sure I like how it turned out so I may re-shoot it. I also shot four product shots but I managed to misplace the CF card with those images so I re-shot today. I shot a bowl of cereal and that was fruity and part of a well balanced breakfast. I have plans for some sweet portraits but I need to find models and wait for good weather.

Ok, thats all for now.

Be good to eachother and party on dude.

-Ryan

My New Design

2008-03-27T11:30:00.006-04:00

Hey!

I just posted my new website design!
Jump over to ryanterryphotography.com to see it and let me know what you think. Did you like the old one better? Is it easy to navigate? Do the colors work? Too many photos? Not enough photos?

Also, if you were part of any shooting while I was working in Rochester over the last week, I have some photos in private galleries for you to copy and put on your myspace/facebook/desktop.

Beach/Highfalls shoot - http://ryanterryphotography.com/secure/rochester

Beach night in March- http://ryanterryphotography.com/secure/beachnight/

Red Letter Statement Show - http://ryanterryphotography.com/secure/rlsmarch/

My Phase 3 Personal Submissions

2008-03-25T21:12:00.004-04:00

These are the final images that I used for the personal submissions.

The makeup shot was part of a huge project . I took a whole bunch of different shots which you can see HERE. The Coke was a revisit to my splashing shots from Phase 3 Final. I wanted to do the shots differently but I ran out of time so I revisited it with coke for the personal submissions. The asparagus trees were a second attempt at shooting them. I wanted to do the shots on a light table but they needed some more interest. The flying vegetables were done on a light table. The dancing shoes were the result of difficult lighting and odd uses of clamps.

The shaving cream shot is a revisit to a phase one final shot.

Let me know what you think! Thanks.

Ryan

Dog

2008-03-25T21:04:00.003-04:00

I found this dog outside while his owner was having a cigarette. It was running around like crazy so I tried to get some pictures of it. These are two of them that actually turned out.

My Extras

2008-03-17T15:01:00.002-04:00

Before I post my final images from Phase 3 Part 2 I want to show you how I got to those final images. I took a lot of photos and I am not using most of them. The following images are the result of my constant photographing. They were never used in the final collection and would otherwise never be shown.

Maine

2008-03-17T11:41:00.002-04:00

Hello.

Last weekend some friends and I went to Maine to take some pictures.
Here are the pictures.

Sam in the car
Beard Dryer
Scott on the shore
Ashley
Scott
Sam taking photos
Wet Glasses
The coast
Nubble Lighthouse, Maine

We had a lot of fun even though it was rainy. Just a good day getting away with friends.

More updates later.

This week

2008-03-15T00:58:00.003-04:00

Hey everyone,
I just wanted to let you know that I have not dropped off the planet entirely.
I will be uploading a ton of images to the server tomorrow and updating my blog with a barrage of new stuff throughout the week. Its spring break week and I will be in Rochester doing various photo jobs and catching up with friends and family.

Thanks for hanging in there, new photos soon.

Ryan

My Review

2008-03-05T00:32:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone, sorry its been a while between entries. I have been very busy photographing everything I can get my hands on. I even had Chinese take out for dinner the other night and had to bring the carton into the studio to shoot before I ate any of it.

I had my Phase 3 Mandatories review today with some teachers and George, the president of Hallmark. I got good feedback and great grades and I feel as if I am on the right track. I actually really feel like I have improved the most in these past few days just due to the volume of the shooting I have done. I went from doing maybe one shoot every other day to shooting 3 or 4 projects in one evening as well as SLR street photography during the day between classes and at home. It reminds me of a story my dad told me about how, in his racing days, he bought new tires and ran laps until they were worn out and he became better for it. I guess the constant shooting and stretching of my creativity has really helped in the same regards.

On Sunday I worked at the schools Open House. This is where prospective students come to the school and get a grand tour of the facilities, talk to students and faculty, and check out what the school has to offer. I had a blast showing guests, young and old, what the school was like and talking about the program and what comes with it. I had some sweet talks about gear, photography, toy cameras, Photoshop, portraits, and commercial. I learned a lot myself as well. It was a pleasure to hang out in the portrait studio and work alongside Rich Barnes and Paul Teeling rather than just hear their lectures.

Tonight I spent some time working on a speech about Richard Avedon with my group. Its shaping together nicely and we should be prepared to present on Friday. This weekend I am going to the coast with some friends to model for a friends photoshoot. Why she would want to photograph a sleepy guy with a beard is beyond me.

So I suppose your expecting a long entry of all the sweet studio stuff I have been working on. I regret the fact that I will have to tease you a little bit longer. I opt to do some little finishing touches before I post any of that so you may have to just wait a little bit longer. Trust me, it will be much cooler when I post it all, finished, at once. Until then I hope you enjoy some of my street photography and some images from the open house this weekend.

This is a bridge near my apartment.

View out of Sams window.

I was exploring what human impact on nature looked like this weekend. I felt that the stove on the porch and the smoke with the fence and the brick wall illustrated that point.

A guy sitting on the second floor windowsill?

Coffee Table

Orange on orange

This is Rich Barnes in the portrait studio. He was posing for me but at this moment he was explaining something. He hates this shot. I love it. It really captures the "Rich Barnes Explaining Something" face. We had fun.

This is Celina, a classmate. We were taking turns posing and photographing for a demonstration.

This is by Amber, someone who I talked to extensively about hallmark. Her and I and Paul tested out the camera and she took a few shots with a wide angle lens. This is one of the shots.

Ah ha. Another photo of me. Wild. This one is by either Celina or Rich Barnes. I cant remember who took it because they were switching off. Sorry. If either of you remember, let me know.
I feel so vain posting these pictures of me! Enough of that.

Ill let you know when I get those photos edited.

-Ryan

My Makeup

2008-02-28T18:49:00.002-05:00

I bought a bunch of makeup for a shoot. It would have been a total waste of a lot of money if the shoot had gone sour but thankfully it went really well. Of course I must give a shoutout to the lady at the counter who was more than thrilled at my makeup buying situation.

Here are the shots.

Ok, I gotta run over to the studio and shoot some more tonight. Let me know what you think!

-Ryan

My Video Blog

2008-02-25T18:32:00.004-05:00

Hey, I wanted to see what all the buzz for video blogs was all about so I made this. Enjoy.

Phase Three (sans brochure design.)

"before"

"after digital manipulation"

Product Spec Sheet

I Dont Live There Anymore....Again.

2008-02-24T13:08:00.002-05:00

So I spent all of yesterday moving my stuff into the new place.

I am totally finished with Phase three mandatories and now I have the WHOLE DAY doing NOTHING. Its great.

I can read a book. Do laundry. Update internet things like this. Take pictures for FUN. Its wild.

More later.

My Late Night

2008-02-22T06:52:00.003-05:00

Hey.

It is now almost 7am.

I have been at school editing photos since noon of yesterday. Nineteen hours. Hopefully I can catch some sleep between classes or at lunch time. I am about 95% done with my phase three portfolio which saves me the trouble of being here all weekend fighting for printers with the many students who waited till the last minute. Its much easier for me to stay up late (or all night) editing things than it would to wake up early and do it.

School all night is a sort of bond you share with the other head-in-hands students that are just as tired, hungry, and haggard as you are. Nods are exchanged that mean nothing less than "Yep. Im with ya." Classes should be interesting. Its a good thing I have mostly open work periods and critiques today because I cant possibly retain new information.

Its supposed to snow today too. I have had enough of THAT for quite a while.

Here are some photos.

Four catalog photos of alike products.

This is the Brennan family. I photographed them for this family portrait. They were so easy to work with and had such a beautiful house. I am really happy with how this came out and how nice the family was.

This is Dave from Platypus Records in the Hampshire Mall. I really like that store a lot and Dave is a great guy. Right when we got this assignment I knew how I wanted this to be and it turned out just as I had hoped. He was also very good to get along with and we mostly just discussed bands, records, and photography. I had some camera malfunctions in the beginning but once I got everything set right the shoot went flawlessly and we had fun.

I like this.

This is the layout for the brochure I made for the dentist office. The first page is the front and the other two pages are the inside left and right. The woman on page two is Bianca's (the six-year-old girl I photographed for the child portrait) mother.

Ok. Class soon and then sleep later tonight.

Cheers.
Ryan

This Week the Trend

2008-02-18T20:55:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone.

This week was an interesting one.

• Polaroid stopped making film. Much to the niche markets outcry, earlier this week Polaroid stopped producing film alltogether. If you had a desire to spend about $1.50 per-photo on the film only to get strange artsy photos you had better swipe up all the materials you possibly can. I guess they figured you can buy one of their digital cameras for a hundred bucks why would you pay a hundred bucks for about 80 shots. Logical but sad.

• Today marked the last day that analog cell phone signal worked. Click HERE for more info. Not that it effects anybody. I mean lets be realistic here, nobody has an analog cell phone anymore and actually uses it.

• If you were on the edge of your seats wondering what new digital video media would prevail in the seemingly endless battle between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD you can finally rest easy. The most epic media war since BetaMax and VHS has passed. It looks like Blu-Ray is the winner. Hooray. Additionally, Microsoft put so much stock into making HD-DVD work. Now they have all these computers and Xbox 360s that have basically useless drives. Ha. Click HERE for more.

• Verizon is set to roll out their brand new shiny $100 a month, unlimited calling, cell phone plan. Great. according to THIS article most users only use about 450 minutes a month. Very nice Verizon. One more reason the iPhone is looking more tantalizing.

• Fahrenheit 451 is being made into a movie. I liked that book and I hope they do great things with the movie.

• Breakdance, an early form of hip hop dance, often involve battles, showing off skills without any physical contact with the adversaries.

• Sir Paul McCartney and wife, will divorce with a huge settlement. Will you still need me, will you still feed me
When I'm sixty-four? The answer is "no."

OK, since we got that news out of the way, I wanted to let you know that my address will be changing. I have already made the change on my website but I want to post it here incase you didnt catch it on my homepage. The new address is..

39 Third Street, Turners Falls, MA 01376

In addition to that, I have set up a public screen name. If you feel the need to chat with me, when I am at my computer I will be logged into AIM with the account name

Ryanterryphoto

Now here are some photos I have been working on over the weekend and the stories behind them. I realize that these past two entries have been lacking in speed of the images. If it has taken a long time to display the images i posted I am sorry. I am trying out new image hosting and its a lot of explanation but I am working on it and these photos (and all the future ones) should be speedy.

This is a dentist I photographed for a brochure design assignment. I will be designing a brochure for his office. Neato!

This is the waiting room for the office. It is a really nice office. A lot of students had to set up shots and make the place look pretty but this was a cinch. Everything was perfect as is.

This is a rough working of what my flying shoe ad will look like. Do you like the placement of the text? The logo? Let me know because I have looked at it so much I don't know what looks appealing or not anymore. I like the caption "heavenly." but tell me what you think.

This is another version of the shoe that I took before I returned the shoes. I mean, hey, I have a pair of $100 running shoes for a limited time. Might as well shoot them all I can right? I was debating making this into my ad. I just spent so much time on the dumb clouds that I kind of don't want to give up and do something else. Which do you like better?

Here are un-edited and un-cropped version of some brainchild I was working on for fun. I was so sick of being in front of a computer I just had to shoot SOMETHING. I found this stuff laying around so I grabbed it. Its cool I might do something with it.

I found this stuff too. Well I had it because I was going to use it for a different shoot. I never used the stuff so here it is. I did what I could. I think it looks pretty cool.

Ok thanks for reading, as always, let me know what you think.

Ryan

My New Holgas

2008-02-16T20:06:00.002-05:00

Here are some of my newer Holga photos. Enjoy.

This was on the road. I overexposed everything. I just think it looks cool.

This is Adam from school double exposed with a picture of the Y2K cellar in my basement.

In Boston all of the churches are pretty old and cool so they let tours go through. People coming in to take pictures is nothing new. This is an empty pew with two lights shining down on it. Eerie.

Here is Sam taking a photo in a church double exposed with the texture of a marble wall and church windows.

The public Library in Boston

Aubrey and a computer monitor with a photoshop exercise.

Felicia in class.

Self portrait with sunglasses.

Cooking

Sam folding clothes at the laundromat.

This is one of my favorite photos of all time. This was in NYC a couple of weekends ago. Rather than looking up at the Empire State Building a block away I looked over at the crowd of tourists gazing at it and taking pictures. I love how the continuity of the people and their cameras and the sidewalk go together. Hilarious and very typical NY.

Ill leave you with this photo from NY. It also basically screams NYC. Thanks for reading! I cant wait till next week when I will post all of my finished work from Phase 3.

My New Computer

2008-02-15T00:05:00.002-05:00

Today I finally got my computer in the mail. I ordered the new Apple iMac 24inch cinema display with 4gigs of ram and a dual core 2.8 processor. I call it "the powerhouse." I also got Photoshop and the rest of the creative suite along with Lightroom. I got a Wacom tablet for easy editing as well. The computer even came with the new Mac operating system, Leopard, or as I call it, OSX Def Leopard. Ok, enough shenanigans. Here are some photos.

{This photo really has nothing to do with my computer, but a record was playing and I took a picture of it. I like it.}

I sort of "launched" my website today so feel free to check it out! Its not finished yet but if you feel so inclined, go to ryanterryphotography.com and see it.

I have some new photos up there that I never talked about on this blog so I figured I would give you the inside scoop.

This is Christine from Greenfield. I had her come in and do my hi-key female shoot. I got some pretty good shots and this is by far my favorite. I had the paper background rolled down with a table in the foreground for her to lay on. I put white paper over the table to match her white background. It took me a long time of editing last night to get all the connections of the table paper to the background paper and retouch that blonde hair. Ill let you know right now, curly blonde hair is absolutely a pain to retouch.

On Saturday (wow! that was a WEEK ago! Time is flying...) I photographed this amazing six-year-old girl. I met her mother in the dentist office where I did my brochure photography (stay tuned for that) and she said that her daughter, Bianca, is great to photograph and quite a little character. Bianca likes Scrabble JR. a lot so we sat down on the floor and played Scrabble together while I was snapping pictures.

This is my favorite photo of Bianca and one of my favorite photos that I have ever taken. I really love the way this turned out.

Ok, thats all for tonight, big day of school tomorrow and then hopefully Ill get more work done so you can see it! Thanks for reading and let me know what you think or if you have any questions. Thanks!

Ryan

My Sunday

2008-02-10T22:27:00.000-05:00

Hello,

I just wanted to let you know which business card I chose and to show you a preview of what I was working on today.

I picked....

Front

•

Back

I feel like its the most interesting design wise and it is more "me."

•

Today I photographed a six-year-old girl named Bianca. She brought along some of her toys and we had alot of fun acting crazy and taking pictures.

This is just one un-retouched photo. I took a lot more with a variety of different poses which I can post after retouching.

The following two photos are for an advertisement project. I chose Nike Air shoes and had a very "airy" setup with one of the shoes floating. You can see the wires and I DO plan on taking those out but again, I just wanted a quick sample to show you of what I did today.

I am at school finishing up round one of Holga scanning. I hope to put some pictures up soon but I still have a few more rolls to scan.

Until next time,

Ryan

My Quick Update

2008-02-09T19:44:00.000-05:00

Hey everybody!

I don't think I ever posted my interior architecture shots from Boston! I photographed the inside of the Christian Science Church. The place has some pretty cool designs and I really wish you could see the details in this small version of it. Just.... try to imagine.

Some things...

• I have been working on the website and it should be up sometime this week
• I am borrowing an old turntable from my house owner and I can now play my collection
• I added to my collection by getting a Doors album which I am listening to now.
• Some time this week my new computer should come in! I am getting this....

• Across the Universe came out and I have watched it beginning to end including the extras. Amazing film.
• I will have most of my assignments done tomorrow for phase three
• I got a model for one of my remaining shots today
• I photographed a nice woman from Connecticut today in Northampton and knocked out my "outdoor portrait" assignment.
(It was incredibly cold outside and snowing so hard. Lucky us.)
• Got out my guitar this weekend and remembered how to play it.
• I made ice tea and am thouroghly enjoying it. School is closed tonight so I plan on kicking back, drinking tea, and watching Rent. It will be a busy day tomorrow.
• Lastly I got a bunch of Holga film back yesterday and I will upload it when I can scan it. I really like how it came out.

Ok. Thats all. More later.

-Ryan

Coming Soon

2008-02-03T12:48:00.000-05:00

Hey everybody,

Just a quick update here to let you know whats going on. Im currently in NY visiting Hallmark alumni Kris and Alex with Sam from school. We went exploring the city yesterday and took a ton of pictures. I have been shooting Holga film like crazy so when that is all processed I can post it here.

We go back to Turners Falls tonight on a train. From NYC to New England while the Giants and the Patriots are playing the superbowl.

Also, I am extremely excited about the launch of the my official website sometime soon! Stay tuned for that.

My Art Historic Reference

2008-01-31T08:53:00.000-05:00

Hey! Thank you for all of the feedback about the business card! I have chosen, made some changes, and will post it when everything is finalized. Also, very big news is in the making so stay tuned for a huge announcement!

For now, until I let you in on this announcement, I have a pretty exciting entry.
This is an entry that I have been looking forward to writing for a long time and it talks a lot about one of my favorite assignments to plan, shoot, edit, and produce. Enjoy.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Before Christmas break in December we received an assignment to shoot an art historic reference. This goes along with our art history class. We were to find a painting or drawing that is of some kind of historic and signifigant importance, basically just something that people would recognize painted by a known artist, and make our own interpretation of it.

I chose this painting titled "Potato Eaters" by Van Gough.

I wanted to add a modern twist to it but make my piece resemble the original pretty closely. I wanted the gesture, the lighting, the view, the camera angle, etc. to be as close to Van Gough's as I could while totally ignoring other details such as costume, light fixture, and background. That way my work is a tribute to the original but has its own flavor.

Here is what I came up with. I call it "Ramen Eaters"

(for a bigger image, click HERE)

I am really happy with the results I got and Ill even give you some inside scoop. This was my first real Photoshop heavy photograph. I knew that going into it and the post production work wasn't to fix problems it was to enhance the final image. I shot this in the Blue House's basement a few weeks ago with the help of my lovely models. We did a few shots and I set the scene so the gestures and the concept were the same but the clothes and background didn't matter so much. I wanted the faces and the movements to be the things that carry the picture.
After the shoot I did a lot of heavy work on the background to make it seem to fade, only to make the faces pop out more.
I re-arranged the paint cans for symmetry. I changed Bethany's (front middle) hair from glowing blonde to subdued brown so the brightness wouldn't take attention away from the faces. Also, in addition to typical facial re-touching I "plasticed" the faces to give the image a more surreal, frozen, look.

This is a piece that I am really proud of and I had a lot of fun visualizing it and making it.

As always, let me know what you think!

Its Business Time!

2008-01-30T08:01:00.000-05:00

Hello.

I write to you from the Imaging Lab at school. Life is mostly busy and exciting here at hallmark as I continue getting phase three assignments done. I am currently designing a business card and stationary and would like to show you what I have done. Feedback is extremely important because I cant decide which one I like.

This is the one sided design. The options below are just the front of the card. At the bottom I have a couple of ideas for the back of the card.

Those are a couple of designs I came up with for the front of the card. Here are two ideas for the back side.

Im not sure how I feel about this second one. It could use some work but it was the last thing I was working on late last night.

I also have a design that is TOTALLY different than the above style.

I feel like this one is cool but if I used it I should have a large office with old books and a desk made of rich mahogany. The first style is more "me."

Let me know what you think of the front designs, back designs, or mahogany madness.

Playing With Light Driving at Night part two)

2008-01-28T12:45:00.000-05:00

As promised, here are some extra shots on the way back from Boston. I was playing around with long exposures out of a car window again and I got alot better results.

src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2412/2224359262_1ef0f9c0c7.jpg?v=0" border="0" alt="" />

Boston

2008-01-27T20:24:00.000-05:00

Hey,

This weekend I went to Boston with some friends of mine. Me, Katelynne, Ashley, Bethany, and Sam left early yesterday morning to drive over and visit the city for a day. There were a ton of cool buildings and places to go. For the first half of our day I used my Holga so I will upload those photos when I get them developed. We took a bunch of great pictures and rather than just talking about them let me show you.

Katelynne in the train station checking her photos. I find it funny how the people in the background only have blue or red coats on and I like how she was standing so perfectly symmetrical to my view. Things couldnt have lined up nicer.

This is Sam taking pictures and sitting in the subway station. We were waiting for the girl's Boston friends to arrive and meet us.

Katelynne and Bethany waiting patiently for the subway.

Ashley sitting in front of an electronic book AD. The whole station was plastered with these.

Sam and I explored the station taking pictures. We found a lot of doors and long hallways.

After the two guys that were meeting us showed up we split off into groups. Jordan, Katelynne, and Ashley went off to one part of the city to take pictures and Lee, Bethany, Sam, and myself went to a park to do the same.

This is some traffic I shot while we were crossing a bridge.

Bethany, Lee, and Sam walking to the gazebo.

I took some pictures of Lee to fulfill an assignment and this is one of the shots with some of the skyline in the background.

This guy was very much asleep.

The Boston skyline looked amazing with the sky and clouds the way they were. I shot this wide angle and I like the look that I got. A very distorted and bent look to the buildings.

Sam didnt think he was in the shot so he gave me a funny look. He was in the shot.

Lee left us and the three of us continued to explore the city. We went through a huge mall and just took some street photography.

We met up with Katelynne and Ashley at their friend Jordan's swank apartment with an awesome view overlooking the city and then went to the Christian Science Church to take some architecture shots.

Stay tuned in a later update for those shots and a sequel to the "playing with light driving at night" entry!

Godspeed.

-Ryan

More Polaroids

2008-01-25T15:02:00.000-05:00

I really love the colors. These are the first non-event type photos I have done with polaroids. I like how they came out.

Captured Glass Flying Liquid

2008-01-23T08:27:00.000-05:00

This week in the studio I shot my Glassware assignment three times because I was never satisfied with my results. In Phase Three of the Hallmark Program we have one big assignment to shoot a sixteen part project. One of the parts is glass shot in the studio. The third time must be the charm because I was very happy with the results I got.

•

This was water with yellow food coloring. I had a friend drop ice cubes into the glass as I pulled the shutter release on the large format camera.

•

We used purple coloring for this shot and I feel like it showed the splash the best. This is my favorite but let me know which one you like the best.

•

I had my assistant pour red water into the blue water to get an interesting swirl when they met.

•

This was made to give the illusion that the water turned red only once it hit the glass.

•

This was a basic shot with clear water being poured.

•

This was my other favorite of the set with the ice cubes falling perfectly into the glass and making a wave over the side.

Let me know which one you like and stay tuned for more updates!

My Holga

2008-01-22T18:00:00.000-05:00

Hey, Remember when I bought my Holga Camera? I took some pictures over the past month and scanned them. This is some of the stuff I came up with.

My Last Weekend

2008-01-21T13:54:00.000-05:00

Hey!

Last weekend my friends from Rochester came over for a visit! Ben, Nick, and Mark piled out of Nicks new Honda late Friday night and moved all their stuff into my house. They brought me a cornucopia of food and we promptly made some. After our feast we went back to school to tour the guys around and followed that with some candlepin disco bowling! Good times ensued and we went back home for some rest. Saturday we messed around in Greenfield and Turners Falls as I showed them the limited things the towns had to offer. That afternoon my landlord, Dean, took us down to his rod and gun club for a while. That was a good time of cards, football, and merciless ripping on each other. We got some Taco Bell afterwards and watched a movie.

On Sunday I shot Ben in the spare bedroom for the window light assignment.

After a quick lunch I brought the guys to the studio to mess around. Here are some of the pictures that came out of that chaos.

When we were done in the studio we headed down to the tavern in town and had burgers and fries and watched the Dallas game. Mark was very put out when they lost. Ben was sympathetic with a slight smile of ridicule. Nick was indifferent.

The guys left through the snowstorm on Monday morning after I had gone to school. It was a fun weekend before a stressful week.

My Adventures in Northampton

2008-01-19T11:23:00.000-05:00

Last week I arranged to meet with a guy named Brian from Lucky's Tattoo in Northampton. I was to be there at seven PM and photograph him around his stuff in his office for a environmental portrait. This normally wouldnt be a problem at all but I was busy at school and had to hurry to prepare. I got a light kit and lenses from school to do the shoot, put them in my truck, and drove the half-hour or so to Northampton. First I had to find the place.

I knew where Lucky's is because I have been in that part of the neighborhood before...I just couldnt remember WHERE that part of the neighborhood was. So I drove around and fortunately Northampton is pretty small and I found it. The bad part is that Northampton has basically one place to park and that is this huge parking garage in the middle of town. So here I am walking fast to get there by seven carrying probably close to fifty pounds of equipment between the camera stuff, the light kit, and the tripod. Of course I looked like the most awkward packing mule and would have given anything for a hand cart, wagon, or perhaps strong assistant. Anyway I got there and Im pretty sure the guy thought I was the doofiest guy ever. I mean I walk in there out of breath carrying more than a mommas boy at the first day of second grade. Naturally, due to my awesome style and smooth talking he quickly proved his notions about me to be incorrect. I got some great stuff.

After the shoot I looked at my watch and realized I had been parked for an hour and five minutes. In the Northampton parking garage the first hour is free and its fifty cents an hour after that. Of course I had no money in my wallet. So I begin walking to find an ATM. Still loaded with all my photographic paraphernalia. There was an ATM right across the street but it wasnt from my bank and, with me being a wise money-saving college guy, I keep going to find a Bank of America to avoid the service fee.

I keep walking.

After about a mile or so out of my way I give up and use a generic ATM, pay a service fee, and turn around to see the Bank of America right behind me. Of course.

The machine at the garage takes your money, grants you a pass to leave the garage, and gives you change back. I got out a twenty and didnt want to deal with $19.50 in quarters so I went BACK a mile to try to find a store that is open to exchange for smaller bills. Easier said than done in New England. I get change and go back to the garage to find that the first floor machine wasnt working. The next one was on the third floor. You get the picture.

However excruciatingly annoying most of my journey was and how much my shoulders hurt after my little excursion I did get some good pictures and it was worth the trouble.

Concept Art

2008-01-17T00:06:00.000-05:00

Apple • Lipstick • Sinful

Greenfield Part Two

2008-01-16T19:48:00.000-05:00

Part Two

***

My last entry focused on photos I had taken on a warm day in town. It was about 60 degrees and sunny giving perfect conditions for some street photography.

The temperature dropped dramatically in the past few days and I was able to get out to greenfield one night and photograph the change of climate. As you can see, the photos are much different.

Enjoy.

•

This is the view from my driveway showing my house in the background. This was right after we had Jay Maisel (world renown photographer) come visit the school and talk about how he always has his camera with him. I decided to bring it back with me after lunch break to follow his advice and I got this shot right out of the driveway.

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This is the intersection by my house on Turners Falls Road. Everyone was slipping all over the place so I stayed back and took this picture. I really like how you can tell its in a car. I took it quickly on AUTO mode just to show you what it looked like but I actually like the composition as well.

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That night I shot in Greenfield as I mentioned above. I used a high iso (speed setting) for night shots which gives me a fuzzy grainy feel when I blow the pictures up. You cant see it here but it shows up in prints and full scale photos...just trust me on this one. Normally this is a problem but for the shoot its what I wanted. I really wanted a thick, tangible, old feeling about the images. I wanted them to look almost surrealistic like something out of a painting.

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Here is an image that represents what I was looking for in the shoot. I got the grainy look that I wanted (you can see it if you look in the dark parts closely) and I achieved that "painted" look by using a variety of lens modifications. I made it look blurry by blowing on the lens right before the the photo.

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I used the same techniques on this photo as well. This is a doorway to an upstairs apartment and you can see my reflection in the glass.

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A mountain of snow. I love how clear that snow is and how much detail and texture it has.

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This is a shrub in my front yard. I pulled in and noticed that my headlights made a really cool glow so I captured it.

***

When I started this blog I wanted it to be an interactive and re-invented image display. I wanted to share stories and show pictures of things I have been up to. Now that the program is half over I want to kick this up a notch. I know a lot of family and friends read this and I am truly thankful. I just want to make sure that it is more than just an update for the folks back home. I want to transition into reaching a larger audience while keeping the same format as I have been using.

I plan on making some promotional material but you can help as well! Be sure to tell anyone who would be interested, or anyone with an internet connection, all about this site! Thanks!

Question:

With all of the stress and urgency of phase three upon me, every once and a while I will need to do a project for myself to blow off some stress. Any ideas? I have done a "photos at night" project, "flashes in the dark" project, and an "old film cameras" project. I need something I can collect and shoot for myself. A teacher at school shoots photos of shadows. Other people shoot shoes. Signs. Stray animals. Anything.

So let me hear some of your ideas!

Godspeed

Greenfield

2008-01-12T01:51:00.000-05:00

Hello!

On Wednesday I had some time off so I went to Greenfield to take pictures.

This is the view of the town from the poet seat tower. It was a clear day and I wanted to get a shot before the sky got cloudy again.

This is a a storefront in town with a reflective wall next to it.

I was taking some random pictures around town and this lady was hiding behind the sign. Sometimes I like just shooting from the hip at things like this.

Here is the Greenfield furniture store. Its closing down soon so I took the picture of the sign because it looks pretty cool.

This is obviously the side of a building. I really like how there is only two windows on the side...and they dont match.

Well this is a big weekend! Ben, Nick, and Mark are visiting from Rochester. Yesterday we went to school to tour and had a few games of bowling at the candlepin lanes. We woke up a little bit ago and are getting ready to make a nice pancake and bacon breakfast!

-Ryan

My Big (Christmas) Break

2008-01-08T22:18:00.001-05:00

Hello and welcome to 2008!

I hope you had a restful and refreshing time with family, friends, and food. Having days off of work or school helps too.

You may notice some changes around here! A new layout, a new background, and a new tagline (the old one used to say "tales of a twenty year old male moving out and going to photo school.) You may start to see a few formating and text changes! Its a new year and a whole new look. Welcome back to the Idontlivethereanymore blog.

I had a blast as I traveled back to Rochester, NY for a good ol' family Christmas. The family did the typical family things. For fear of being struck on the head by relatives who may dislike their picture being broadcast here I was going to refrain from doing so. Since I can upload SMALL pictures, that may be a safer alternative than a big one, and far better than no picture at all.

I had the yearly big Christmas party so I could see all of the folks back home again. We had it a few days after Christmas, wore horrible Christmas sweaters, drank a lot of energy drinks, watched the Arnold holiday classic "Jingle all the Way," and hung out till 3AM.

Mark, Myself, and Alicia

I am cutting bread for people to devour. Notice my swank getup.

Sarah and Jess.

Ben, dapper as usual.

The whole gang! (or at least everyone who was there at 9:45 for the picture...a whole slew of people came after.)

This was the electronic invite I designed for "the Christmas So Nice You Want Christmas Twice, Post Christmas, Christmas Party."

I also did a fair bit of shooting over break! I shot music portraits for a girl I went to college with, I did a shoot at an archery range, 3 Rolls of Holga 120 film, 2 Packs of Polaroid, and so much more. I also did my first live band photography for multiple bands. Vice Grip, The Demos, The Hoodies, and Red Letter Statement. Keep checking back for more updates and see below for the Red Letter Statement shots.

Over the break I managed to watch the whole first series of Heros which was pretty good but altogether aggravating at the same time. It feels like every episode answers a ton of questions...but creates even more. Hmmm....
Also, my lovely Chocolate phone broke so I am using Ben's old one. Thank you Ben.

Yesterday was good getting back into the swing of things. We are starting to shoot tethered to a computer tomorrow and we learned how to do it yesterday. Tethered means the computer is hooked up to the camera so the image shows up on the monitor right away instead of saving to a memory card. Yesterday and today I spent a lot of after-school time catching up on photo editing and assignment planning.

Here are some of the shots I did for Red Letter Statement. I really like how they turned out.

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Thanks for looking, as always, tell me what you think!
Be ready for a ton of sweet, sweet stuff coming very soon and a lot more updates.
I will leave you with this photo I took of ben in the city. He thinks its the funniest thing...

-Ryan

Christmas

2007-12-24T22:44:00.000-05:00

I thought I would post some pictures I made in the park before I left for Christmas holiday. I tried an interesting technique to get these pictures where I took a thirty second exposure and flashed my Holga color flash multiple times to get the light on my hand, face, etc.

I really like how they turned out and I may have gotten some work from a gentleman I met while doing it.
These are some Polaroids I took during the last school day.

Andi on the camera

Becky, Me, Aubrey

Chris and Aubrey

Thanks for looking and you will hear from me again in the next year!

My Color Checker

2007-12-20T14:22:00.000-05:00

Before I leave tomorrow for Christmas break I just wanted to fit one more entry in. I may update with some shots from my Canon while I am away but I wont be showing any real work until January.

Here are a couple of images from my last shoot in the portrait studio.

I shot these as part of a Hi-Key assignment yesterday in class.
Early in the week I shot Sam in the studio to get some good images to use as stock photography.

We did more photos using this format...not just using the iPod. They are just not ready yet to be shared.

Also, please keep in mind that I have not retouched any of the photos in this post.

When we go out for a shoot, we need to take grey card (or color checker) readings to make the color balance correct in camera. I save these "wasted shots" and put them into a collection. I wanted to post some of these behind the scenes photos because I like how most of them come out in a strange way.

This is Joel from the band Red Letter Statement. I did this shoot over Thanksgiving break.

This is David from our portrait session in High Falls.

In the portrait studio with D'anna.

On the set of the red Christmas candle shoot.

Extra glass shoot.

This is a grey card on the set of the sculptor shoot last weekend.

Re-reading at the sculptor shoot for outside light.

These are usually the pictures that end up getting deleted but for whatever reason I keep them.

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas and thanks for reading!

Godspeed.

Ryan

My Tacky Outfit Snow Day

2007-12-19T23:35:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas! I am nearing Christmas break and getting ready for the trip home. It will be nice to be able to hang out with the ol gang again as well as the traditional family gatherings.

This will be a short update as I will post once more before I leave for home. Here are some fun pictures from me and some of my friends from a day in the snow. Sunday afternoon was "Tacky outfit snow day."

My Sculptor Shoot

2007-12-15T17:49:00.000-05:00

Today I got the privilege of shooting Joseph, the sculptor I met, in his workshop. We did the shoot at nine the morning so the sun would be rising and shining in his side window. I borrowed strobe flashes and a 35mm lens from the school but I didn't end up using the lights because the window light worked better for the mood. Let me show you some of the shots.

This is Joe demonstrating his welder.

I really like how well the window light works for this and how the background is blacked out.

A slightly different pose.

Horizontal.

A side lit portrait.

I am really excited about these shots and I realized how much I have subliminally improved since the beginning. Things I used to think about during a shoot come naturally now. Its very nice and I am liking the work that I produce more and more.

Thanks for looking!

My promotions and deskview

2007-12-14T09:25:00.000-05:00

I never uploaded my promotional pieces so here they are.

I will be able to print these out and send to potential clients. They are also great for internet promotion.

Yesterday I had the commercial shoot where we had to shoot a still life that looks like it wasnt shot in the studio. I did a desk scene at night and used some new and creative techniques to do it.

Sam even joined in the background of the frame for a shot!

I set up the scene and metered the light with only the spotlight coming at a 15 degree angle coming down from the top of the set. That light was harshly coming through the window to create shadows. I put a blue filter on the spotlight to give it an eerie night look. I shot with the desk lamp on, mixing tungsten and natural light together, with an extended exposure to get the luminescence of the lamp with the darkness of the outside. Then I breathed on the lens and waited till the fog started dispersing to take the picture. That gives it a calm smoothness and a bit of a fog. We used oil spray to wet the window as well.
One of my teachers, David Langley, was watching and helping me set up my set and gave me a lot of tips and advice and I realized how lucky we are to have him as a teacher. He has owned so many studios in NY and done so many recognizable advertising jobs. He is a highly esteemed and well known figure in the industry and has worked with so many famous people. He has been in charge of countless six-figure-sum photo shoots and knows most of the people in the industry and he is helping me light my set.

It is very snowy outside. I went out for lunch yesterday and was greeted by a fresh foot of snow on the ground. It didnt let up until about nine PM last night. Its very nice looking but they don't plow as ambitiously here as they do in Rochester. In Rochester you can expect that by the time you leave in the morning for whatever it is you do that the roads are all plowed. Here...It might be lunch time before the morning snow is plowed...on the main roads. It was about seven PM when they plowed my street. In Rochester plowing means that they clear the road to the pavement. Here plowing means that they skim the fluffy snow off the top and leave a nice packed death trap on all the roads. If you see pavement its from a lot of traffic.

Im sure you all remember Joseph the sculpter(and if you dont just click on his name.) I am shooting him and his workshop again this weekend. It should be pretty fun! I will upload those when I get them done along with some other things Ill be up to this week. Then Ill be back in town on Friday the twenty-first for holiday.

Speaking of holiday, Blogger just added OpenID commenting which means that if you have a livejournal, AOL, or any other account that supports OpenID you can sign in at the comment screen to leave authenticated comments. If that means nothing to you, thats quite alright.

Godspeed

My Additional Shoot

2007-12-13T00:07:00.001-05:00

Hey folks.

These images are from my "couples" shoot this morning. I may do a re-shoot to get some variety but I think these shots turned out pretty good.
Let me know what you think of the posing because I pretty much just made those two poses up as I went. I don't think that is the best way to do it and next time I want to go into it with a bit more inspiration as far as posing goes. Overall it turned out ok though.

After classes today I helped a friend out and realized that I had nothing to work on. Instead of going home (the logical and probably healthier choice) I decided to continue and do some shots in the commercial studio. I wanted to do some glass shots again so I found some props in the back room and spent an hour or two fussing with light and composition.

I did another glassware shot...

I also shot a big light bulb and a bigger light bulb that I found.

Comments?

My Egg Sandwich

2007-12-10T23:39:00.000-05:00

Today I ate a fried egg sandwich for dinner and it was very good.

School was also pretty good today but I didn't eat that. It was just classes as normal and I got a couple of new assignments. One of which is to photograph a couple in the portrait studio but due to the male to female ratio I am in a group with 3 girls. We will certainly have an interesting time and we see how my photos turn out. We also got a commercial studio assignment to photograph something in an environment that doesn't look like the studio. Hmmm....

Stay tuned for those.

I also ordered my Holga

Its an inexpensive toy camera that takes photography to its most basic level. It takes pictures like this...

When I was home over thanksgiving break I took pictures in black and white of my brothers in High Falls. Here are some of them.

In class we had an assignment to photograph each other in PR poses and in casual poses. The PR shot has to be something you would put with a resume or use when applying for a job and the casual pose has to tell something about the subject and his or her hobbies. This is Justin, a classmate, who enjoys biking.

Things I Have Been Up To.

2007-12-05T20:54:00.000-05:00

Hello.

This will be a picture post with some things I have been up to recently.

I have been doing a lot of commercial studio assignments recently. The one above was for a propping exercise last week and the shots below was for a still life exercise this week. I was in a Christmas mood.

I like the candle pictures a lot better than the egg nog pictures. What do you think?

Its fun how much I feel that I improved in the commercial studio every new week. We switched to digital right before the nog shoot and its so much easier now that I can see the results as they appear. I can correct mistakes and be better prepared.

We have also been busy in the portrait studio.

This is Aubrey. She is a classmate and we helped each other out with our shots.
The two shots above are to fulfill an assignment requirement to use one light to illuminate the subject and one light to fill in the background in an interesting way. The photo below is using one light to illuminate the front and one to provide an outline that separates the subject from the background.

This is D'Anna who is another classmate. Same as above, the top photo is the background light and the lower photo shows separation.

Let me know what you think, leave me comments, and tell others about my blog.
Thanks.
Ryan

My Band Shot

2007-12-04T15:23:00.000-05:00

I figured that its about time to upload some of the band shots that I did last week on my Thanksgiving recess in Rochester.

This is a new local band based out of Rochester NY called "Red Letter Statement."
You can visit their site by clicking HERE.

From left to right: Sean, Mitch, Adam, Joel, Alex

I took most of the pictures in the defunct subway tunnels in downtown. This area is under the Dinosaur Barbecue (for you locals) and overlooks the river from those small ceiling windows.

This was actually an image that was drastically over-exposed. Before I deleted it I decided to see if I would Photoshop it and I got these results. I really like how it looks with the old style that fits it so well especially in the town that is famous for the early days of photography.

Right before the Thanksgiving holiday we were given an assignment much like the "childhood fear" shot from phase 1.

Our goal was to shoot "coffee cup." No more questions. We were totally open to interpret that any way we wanted. Alot of students shot an actual cup of coffee. I took a different route.

Thanks for reading.

-Ryan

My extra photos

2007-11-28T20:49:00.000-05:00

Well hey there folks!

Here are some extra shots from my trip home for thanksgiving.

Weeeeellllll that was fun wasn't it?
Almost like you were there.

Here are the shots from my glassware assignment shot in the commercial studio last week before break.

Thanks for looking!

My Flight

2007-11-27T16:53:00.000-05:00

Today was the arial flying assignment shoot.

We met at the airport across the street in groups of three and took turns flying. The flight went around Turners Falls and then to Amherst and back. There isn't much I can write about without showing pictures so here they are.

Taylor waiting for his flight

Tony and Cam watching flights take off

The shadow of my plane

Turners Falls from the sky

Our pilot

Some sky from the plane. We had the window open. It was very cold.

Connecticut River

After we landed

This is what fuels the planes.

My Little Break

2007-11-19T23:29:00.000-05:00

Well! The past week was rather painless. Its funny how a week that would have been stressful now seems very relaxed in comparison to the phase one final week. This week was a lot of general classes with no major projects due or crisis to be averted. Early last week I shot a new portrait assignment and on Friday I shot glassware in the commercial studio. Out of the two, glass was more enjoyable. Usually I like portrait more than anything but shooting that glass and getting a sweet look to it was just very inspirational. Its funny how simple the techniques seem to me after doing it once or twice. If not for a simple hint here and an obvious solution there I would still be struggling moving lights around to get a good shot. Glass is backlit and if done properly, looks very professional. More so than many catalogs and store fliers you see daily.

I shot a wine glass and a bottle behind it with a sweet checkerboard pattern throughout and a drinking glass with Alka-Seltzer in it. They seemed pretty sweet! When I get film back I will post pictures.

This is just a quick update before I get going home for the weekend. I have a couple of photo jobs while I am there and then, more sooner than later, ill be back in MA.

Next week is the infamous aviation assignment! We get to go up in private planes and shoot from the sky! It will be very exciting.

Till next time,

Ryan

Polaroids

2007-11-09T20:32:00.000-05:00

As a personal project I have started using my polaroid camera. Film is a bit pricy but to me its worth it. Even bad photos look "classic" because its a polaroid. Every shot looks like art. I like it alot.

Portfolio

2007-11-09T19:08:00.000-05:00

Hello!

As promised, I'm going to load my phase one final assignment on here! Enjoy.

This is the final crop I decided on for my self portrait. I like it a lot. Its the one Im most happy with.

This is a bottle of shaving cream. This part of the assignment was to shoot a consumer product in its environment. I did just that.

I believe you have seen this one before. Its the outdoor backlit flash.

This is a shot demonstrating warm colors against a warm background. It is part of a color study to show how colors interact with each other.

This is the flip of the above photo. That demonstrated warm on warm while this demonstrates cool colors on a warm background.

This is Mary, a new groupmate of mine. This shot was to demonstrate lighting a subject outdoors with natural light.

The above photo is part one of two motion shots. It demonstrates dragging the shutter a bit slower so that the motion is blurred. The shot below is an example of freezing motion.

Thanks for looking!

My Teaser

2007-11-06T22:54:00.000-05:00

Ok, folks! I am loving all the feedback on the pictures I posted! Keep it up!

I have picked the final image to use as my self portrait and I am seven-tenths of the way done with my entire phase one final assignment. Your next update will be after the phase one review on Friday. Ill upload my whole 10 part assignment for you to see what I have been busy with.

Tomorrow I am shooting photos of reflective metal in the commercial studio then I have the rest of the afternoon to work on the final. Praise the LORD. Should be a fun time.

Till next time,

Ryan.

My Self Image Pt. 2

2007-11-04T18:04:00.000-05:00

The following are the five possibilities I have narrowed the self portrait down to.
The first two are re-touch jobs of the ones I posted yesterday and the others are new concepts I finished today.

href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2104/1862757257_ad93f53d64.jpg?v=0">

Let me know what you think.

Godspeed

My Self Image

2007-11-03T21:00:00.000-04:00

Before I begin I just want to let you know that I didn't sell as many photos last month as I had hoped for the benefit of Open Door Mission. (See Here)
I did sell a few and have sent profits to them regardless.

So thank you for your support!

Today was a good day.

I woke up around 11:30 which is just lovely after a week of five hours of sleep a night. I know that seems irresponsible but the time was spent at school from 7:30 in the morning till at least 11:00 at night for the sake of finishing projects. Its at the end of PHASE 1 and that means crunch time. On top of our normal flow of assignments and activities I have a final project to work on. The final consists of examples from each assignment we had received this year so far. Sleep is a precious commodity. Outside of the school building there is a monogram on the siding that says

Class of '08
This is our house!

Indeed it is becoming my house. I could save so much on rent.... :)

I realized that I have never described to you what a normal school day is like. I get out of bed a little bit before seven and get ready for the day. After a quick breakfast I will head over to school around seven thirty to leave enough time in case of a traffic emergency. I get to school and socialize or use the computers until eight when class begins. I have classes in different rooms with the same group every hour until five in the afternoon. We get an hour for a lunch break at noon as well. During that break I usually go home and make something so I don't have to pack it after all, I live only five minutes or so away.

After school I usually end up doing something with a friend. Usually it has something to do with school since our lives ARE school for the next eight months. Hanging out usually has to do with shooting an assignment, buying or returning supplies, or going to interesting photo spots. Lately we have been hanging out around school since we need the computers and equipment for assignments. This goes out the window on Thursdays however. Thursday nights are Office nights. Office nights are sacred.

I have been getting assignments back and they are doing well and to my approval. I really am enjoying assignments and a lot of my grades are very close to perfect score. Some of them ARE perfect scores!

Well I hope this creates at least a vague mental picture of what a day in the life is like.

Before we get to the photo update I just want to share a movie trailer for an incredible movie.
Across the Universe

Now onto the photos...

This is Sam, a friend from school. I took this as part of an in-class exercise. Its not perfect but I like how it turned out. The assignment was to shoot the photo in all the wrong ways to demonstrate color balancing and other methods of post-shoot computer corrections. This is the corrected image.

Since the shooting bays are now open after hours at school I have some room for experimentation. The following are shots of cameras in my collection. I shot them for my own benefit just so I got the practice.

This is the crown of my "old camera collection." Its a Kodak Brownie video camera recently donated kindly to the collection from my grandpa. I really want to see if I can get an old reel so I can use it!

This is another piece that I am proud of. Its just a Kodak disposable camera. Those are a dime a dozen. No big deal. The reason I love it is because sure everyone has at one time or currently has one but think about it. Everyone had a polaroid and they still have em. Polaroids are worth next to nothing. Nobody keeps disposable cameras. One day it will be worth a lot because of its rarity. That, and the one pictured is a Japanese import.

This is my favorite camera. Its the most fun to use and its the camera that I learned on. The lens is incredible because in addition to quality glass it has a 1.4 F-stop which means its possible to shoot sans tripod in the worst lighting conditions. Ideal for concerts, night time events, or dawn/dusk. Nothing is more satisfying than getting a roll of T-max 100 black and white film.

This is my friend Andi who posed in my flash unit assignment. The goal was to illuminate the front of a backlit subject using manual flash settings.

This is Sam again in his apartment. I found a magnifying glass and an old book on the table and told him to look. Click.

Now here is an EXCLUSIVE sneak peek at my self portrait. The following images are two different ideas that create a different feeling. The first one is just in the studio and the second one has one of the downtown shots
placed as the background. Obviously both of them are edited images. In the studio I shot a picture of myself. Then I took pictures of me holding the TV where my head should go. Lastly I took a picture of the "fuzz" on the screen. In Photoshop I composed everything together. They are not final and I still have some more major Photoshop work to do just to clean it up.

Let me know which one you think is better.

I do have a different composition in mind altogether so look out for that coming soon!

As always, please let me know what you think! To leave a comment, just click on "leave comment" and drop me a note! You don't need to create an account to do so.

Thanks for reading!
-Ryan

My Portrait Studio

2007-10-29T15:56:00.000-04:00

Today marked the first day of the portrait studio studies. I shot Alex from our group.

Playing with Light Driving at Night

2007-10-28T16:08:00.000-04:00

Hey all,

I wanted to share with you an experiment that I tried the other night. I set my Mamiya on the tripod in the front passenger seat of my car and drove around town exposing for upwards of 20 seconds. This caused a blurring effect of all the lights as if it were paint rather than a photograph.

I found this rather interesting and continually try to think of ways to alter this method to get cooler results.

Here are some of the shots.

These were the ones that turned out nicely. It took a lot to get a few good results but if you have any suggestions to further my artistic light spectacular let me know.

This afternoon I tagged along with a couple of friends to the Xenophon Farm in Montague Center as an attempt to gather some stock images of our equestrian friends for an assignment.

Let me know what you think! Thanks for reading.

-Ryan

My Quick Update

2007-10-24T14:35:00.000-04:00

This morning in Visual Arts class we were assigned to photograph props that we had brought in a creative matter. I used my Canon xti and shot upstairs of the school by a window.

My Newest Developments

2007-10-23T20:08:00.000-04:00

Finally! Here is the long-awaited photo update!
Enjoy.

------------------------------------------------------
Last weekend three of my good friends from
back home were able to come to Turners and
visit me, see the school, and experience for them-
selves what this little town has to offer.
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1

2

3

4

5

6

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Now, I must give credit to KT for numbers
4-6 as she is due. 1-3 are my images.
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1 and 2 are shots of Brian and Meredith on the
potholes of Shelburne Falls. 3 is Meredith and Brian
on the top of a wooden train in Energy Park.
4 is a snapshot of KT and Brian. 5 is Meredith
and I making Apple Crisp. 6 is the lot of us after a
rousing game of scrabble. KT and I were on a team
and lost. In our defense we were concentrating too
hard on coming up with awesome words like "Swank."
------------------------------------------------------
I also took the following Images while we were out and about.
------------------------------------------------------
7

8

9

10

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7 and 8 are in Shelburne. The focus leads you to the
sky while they maintain a lovely foreground.
9 is mostly just stock photo of pumpkins that
I took at an apple orchard. 10 is graffiti that
we found in Greenfield.
------------------------------------------------------
The following Images are from shoots I did this past weekend.
------------------------------------------------------

11

12

13

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11- Burned guitar in Millers falls under the bridge
12- Bridge in Millers Falls.
13- Trampled flower in a ray of light.
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14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21
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14-21 are all of the "Peace Pagoda" in Leverett MA.
Peace Pagoda is a working monastery where they
graciously allow visitors to wander in and see whats
happening. I went with Christina and we surely enjoyed
the architecture and beauty that this place offered.
19-21 are all in the meditation garden to the left of the
structure.
------------------------------------------------------
Last Friday the students at the school had the chance
to go to NYC for PHOTO EXPO. The conference was amazing
but for me it was also a great time of exploring the city that
never sleeps. For growing up in New York it came as an
oddity to most that I had never been to the city. I spent some
of the day exploring the city with some fine gentlemen and ladies.
It was a bit foggy and rainy but still an enriching experience.
------------------------------------------------------
22

23

24

------------------------------------------------------
22-24 are shots along the walk in NYC.
------------------------------------------------------

This is it! The end of the most recent photo update. I hope your filled with more of a sense of what I have been doing and your input, as always, is welcomed. If you think that they were horrible let me know what you would like to see! If you like them, let me know why you like them!

Hear from you soon.
Godspeed.

-Ryan

This Week the Trend...

2007-10-16T12:18:00.000-04:00

Well Its been about a week since my last update and what a week its been!

Im still adjusting to the changing influx of assignments and rate of assignments. My internet is out in my house so I rely on brakes in school to update the blog and check email. I have been getting a few orders for prints but the month isn't over yet! There is still time to order and support the Open Door Mission! Just click on the link to the post on the upper left panel of the page to go to the order page.

This past weekend some amazing friends of mine came over to visit and we had a blast! We toured the towns around TF and basically just hung out the whole time. It was a refreshing drop of water in a stressful desert.

I sent my Minolta away for repair last week and just got it back yesterday. This was my first SLR and Its the one I feel most comfortable with. I loved the shots it took but the back started leaking light and the shutter eventually stuck.

Its better now and all I need is a new battery to start snapping some classic pictures on 35mm kodak film just like "the good old days."

Additionally, here are some things that are day brighteners.

The new Jimmy Eat World album is out today and It is incredible. I truly hope you will check it out. SITE.
The new Radiohead album is avalible for FREE on their website. SITE.
Friday I am going to NYC for PhotoExpo
I set two alarms today and they both went off at the same time. It sounded like a symphony. It amused me greatly.
Tonight I get to go out and shoot with my Minolta and that is something that I will surely look forward to.
A few nights ago I watched "V for Vendetta" with some friends and It was an incredible movie. I recommend it.
"Legally Blonde" is now a Broaday Musical. Interesting. BLONDE.
I started reading "1984" again and its worth a read.

Ok thats it for now.

Godspeed.

My Weeks End

2007-10-11T09:33:00.000-04:00

Hey all, It has been far too long and that can be due to my lack of working internet. I am updating from the school for the time being and have some new photos for you.

On Tuesday I remembered that I had met a gentleman named Joseph in town and he had given me his card. Joseph runs a sculpture yard in town and told me to come over anytime to shoot some of them. I had nothing to do and I wanted practice with my camera so I went over to get a few shots. This is what I got.

This is a small portion of one of the figures. An arm being fitted onto the shoulders of an abstract human form.

This is Joseph tightening some screws to hold the arms in place.

It was a moderate success photographing the statues and I will surely go back for more as time permits.

On Wednesday I went to North Hampton MA on a field trip with the rest of our class.

This is part of a statue inside an art museum. We were only allowed to photograph a few pieces and I was glad this was ok. I liked the way the form flowed and the background blacked out.

The phone pictured is my efforts for a blurring assignment. We were to shoot a scene with very selective focus with interesting colors.

This is Heidi who was in a group with myself and another. The assignment was to shoot a person at an upward or downward angle. We were going to just do a quick shot and move on to the other parts of the assignment but we had so much fun doing poses and interesting angles that we kept it up. It was like a senior portrait shoot.

Today and Friday I just have regular classes but I hope to rent some lenses and shoot after school and over the weekend. Speaking of the weekend, I have three friends coming up to visit and it should be a blast!

Until next time,
stay classy.

-Ryan

My Promised Uploads

2007-10-02T07:37:00.000-04:00

Here are the Photos I promised a couple of entries ago. These Photographs are set between 5:30 and 6:30 AM at Shelburn Falls, MA.

This is right at sunrise with a long exposure. It took a few tries to get one from the street without a car invading the shot.

This is a bridge across the river. In the morning with the dim sunlight it appears that the reflection causes an oval shape.

This is a building over the river. To me, its just one of those shots that just works. I love the way the little party lights compliment the background fade and the fog.

These are the potholes of Shelburne. A natural phenomenon that causes the rocks to become smooth and develop little caves and divots for water to travel through.

I dragged the shutter speed down signifigantly so I could capture the motion of the water here. I was basically standing right next to the waterfall. This is where my tripod fell apart and I was lucky to have my backup tripod otherwise the shoot may have been finished.

This is a group of Hallmark students setting up a photoshoot on the trains.

Thanks for looking, tell me what you think!

My Photos For Funds

2007-09-30T12:46:00.000-04:00

Hey friends,

I have decided to put some photographs online for sale. I have chosen more of my recent work and narrowed the list down to 18 of my favorites.

I have also decided to kick off my print selling with a bonus. In the first month, October, half of the proceeds from the sales will go towards the Open Door Mission in Rochester NY.

http://www.opendoormission.com

Pricing

Color:
5x7- $10
8x10- $20
16x20- $100

Metallic:
5x7- $10
8x10- $22
16x20- $130

These will be shipped in a well protected sleeve/box/roll. If you would like the print matted or framed, there is an additional price. Let me know if you need a different size. Shipping is included in the price.

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My Max Capacity

2007-09-27T22:57:00.000-04:00

Hello friends and greetings from Turners!

The past few days have been quite busy! Wednesday I woke up at five AM to go to Shelburne falls. Shelburne is about 20 minutes away and has some beautiful scenery and colors that are perfect for photos. Naturally, I went before sunrise to catch some long exposures. I have a bunch of shots that I really want you to see but there is a small setback.

See, I host my photos on the popular photo sharing website "Flickr." Unfortunately they only allow 100 MB of photo upload a month and I filled that up about a week ago. I thought about upgrading to the pro service so I could have unlimited upload capacity but I decided against it because I will be making a website in class. Then I will have my own photo website rather than just a host.

I regret the inconvenience of this and I assure you things will be great as far as hosting when I get my website. For now, I will have to wait to upload the Shelburne works. When the month changes, you can expect a photo update.

Till then, here is a shot that I DID manage to upload of some of us walking off after the shoot. We had a lot of props and some of us were dressed strangely to make photos intense. We were done at about 4:00 PM and had been working since 5:30 AM.
We were right near the car when I said "STOP! This would make a sweet photo..."

So here it is.

Absolutely absurd and the photo wouldnt work any other way. Its one of those shots that make you SO happy that you took the time to make it. We were so tired and the last thing we wanted to do was set up for another photo but I am so glad we did.

So long for now, you will hear from me in October!

My Slideshow

2007-09-23T11:27:00.000-04:00

My Fun Photos

2007-09-21T11:44:00.000-04:00

Hello!

It has been a while since my last post and I wanted you to know that I have been busy! Hallmark has put us to work and I have been managing assignments, snapping pictures, and making pages of "to do" lists. I am at school, upstairs in the student lounge, uploading some of my recent photoshoot online over lunch break. We went outside with cheap digital cameras to excersize creativity by forming everyday objects into interesting pictures. The goal was to see that we would shoot the photos in the most interesting ways (rather than front on.)

Here is what I came up with.

They are not edited yet...I will be doing that next week in class. I just wanted to post these to hold you over until I upload some of my personal work that I have been shooting around town.